04/26/2005: "Sea Lions, Bid on a Commission, My "Style" etc."

I got a funny email this morning from my photographer friend Jeff Jemison:

"look at the sea lion on this link...i always think of this pose as one of your paintings....i "imagine" this image in the style of your landscapes and can actually "see" it on canvas. Maybe i should stop mixing the barbituates with the wine and huffing." (I'm pretty sure he's joking about the huffing!) but that photo of the sea lion is hilarious...maybe he and I will have to do a collaboration?

Speaking of my paintings, the local public radio station KTOO is gearing up for its Spring Radio Auction. I'm donating a commisioned piece up to 24"x30". My formula is height +width x 8. So, 24+30=54 and 54x8 = $432.00. I'll work until the customer is happy with the piece, but I want it stressed that I *don't* do realism and ultimately it has to be something that we both sign off on.

They've linked to it on their preview section and it will be mentioned in the Juneau Empire too. I'm going to send out an email to my list to let them know about it. I hope it sells for full value.

On a different note, a friend who is *very* familiar with my work found what she is convinced is one of my paintings, featured in a home shown in Better Homes and Gardens. I didn't recognize the name of the couple being featured, but it did sound like it could be one of my pieces. She said " I am certain it was one of yours so I ripped out the page and am bringing it back to show you." Sounds like someone is painting in an incredibly similar way to me. I'll keep you posted...

Replies: 3 Comments

on Wednesday, April 27th, Shannon said

How did you come up with the pricing formula for your commissioned work?

I agree!!! that sealion would make a gorgeous 'you' painting! i can see it too! perrhaps your next series/fixation will be sealions in the buff :O at risk of being 'Alaskana' which i really think is a risk you should take!!!! but the book cover first! ;)

Well Shannon, I just made it up. People always expect for larger paintings to cost more regardless of how successful they are. I price my regular work based on size *and* how much I like the finished piece.

With commissioned pieces I can't tell the customer that I want to wait to see how good it turns out before I let them know how much it's going to cost, so I tried to find a size-based way of calculating that would mirror (more or less) the pricing of my regular work. A 24x30 painting of mine would normally sell for between 400-500 dollars and using this formula it comes out to $432.00 unframed.

It works well for the smaller sizes too, for example a 12x16 commission would cost $224.00.

As my prices have increased over the years I've simply changed the number I multiply by.

Anyway, it's been working for me so far.

And Subi, don't worry, I'll do the book cover first. I'm planning on working on it this weekend and you'll have a draft to consider by Monday.

I was going to do it this past weekend but we've been having such amazing weather and when you live in Juneau, you can't stay indoors when it's nice out. I think there's a law about that somewhere. :rolleyes: